Nova's Magic Mastery Guide to Sorcery

Thanks for the clarification on the WM issue.

Is it true that having a pet out in combat takes away from your regular crit. ( I mean reduce the amount of Crit you get)?
Is grand Summoning good now, I want to try it on my pvp loadout but am unsure?

Just wantto get some ideas about Healing side. Lately i have been running T6 alert andanytime i run as a healer i notice that i can just dump Rejuvante (this goes for any alert). Currently what i am going with is - Shards, COP, Boon of Souls, Ritualistic Word, Transmutation, Watcher.

This wount work in raids but as fars as alerts go, this loadout deals damage and heals pretty much everything, Pets, NPC, Players. Never really have to worry much. Any thoughts.

@DarkThorn
I know about the Precision Nerf, but with the damage splitting on all the aoe's small might buff would not hurt.

Also Just another note why is it that you have to get a healing move to get to a DPS move in sorcery. Is it the same in other power trees?

On the Stun issue, i checked Ionic Drain on Electricity and the Stun is still there.

I've been a strong believer that a pure Fury based loadout is capable of putting up good damage and that's what I currently use on live. However, over the last couple of days I've done some testing on the Test Server running Survival Mode and I'd have to say I found a rotation that puts insane amount of dps with WM.

This is PI/DoT heavy loadout so it is perfect for content like T6 alert and Survival Mode. Currently using HB -> Bow (Arrow Fling) combo which blends nicely with Shards.

Soul well > Arrow Fling -> Shards clip with WoD -> Circle Arrow Fling -> Shards -> ??

? - You can continue into Shards or Soul Well, etc.

Since it's a DoT heavy rotation you must keep them up at all times, using Shards after arrow fling applies a DoT and huge burst and with WoD and Shards in your rotation Bad Karma is always on which means the circle is always double ticking. I opted out transmutation because it eats the PI, I may do a test with it to see if it's worth since I'm applying the PI back almost immediately.

So this loadout looks like:

Must: Circle, Soul Well, Weapon of Destiny, Shards

Optional: Robot, SC, transmute, vengeance, neo-venom?

I took at small clip off Monday's run of SM:



I'm open to ideas on improvement and I'll test with transmute and vengeance to see if it may be better.

Great post and thank you for sharing the video as well! I had high expectations for Sorcery in Survival Mode solely due to the fact that you're fighting in one room. This gives ALL DoT based power sets a clear advantage especially with the insane health pools. Nature, Sorcery, and Elec players should be in heaven with this opportunity. Fury Given those facts, I'll note these:

• Soul Well is most certainly a must have for Survival Mode. You will be able to keep three up at all times and while normally that's a problem in some instances due to steamrolling adds, Survival Mode is only one room. The only downside to it is that it could get you killed if your tank is not alert because your Soul Well may hit new targets before the Tank does, causing them to target/lunge you.

• As far as your load out, it's quite fine because you have the staples(Shard, CoD, WoD) and the rest can be left up to personal preference. However, I will say that in any situation except a single target, Transmutation will net you more damage over Vengeance simply because it's hitting more targets. On a single target they'll do roughly the same damage but Vengeance is faster and it uses less power. Also, to my knowledge Transmutation has never consumed the PI.

• In a WM Buff loadout, Grand Summoning and Robot Sidekick are both great options to go with because Grand Summoning, though containing Fury, does not cancel the bonus and neither does Robot Sidekick.I've been on and off of Neo-Venom Boost but I can't like it. If it proc'd off of might damage like Intimidation/Menace etc I'd see it being more viable. Gag Glove is a much better alternative. It applies a Dazing PI and does more damage with the Dazing PI. The damage is pretty high as well.

• Given that these bosses in Survival Mode have high health pools which means they'll stay <35% for an extended period of time, Finishers may have a place on load outs. I'm usually against Final Ruin and likely won't use it but others that do, could.

IMO, unless you have a solid load out for the Arbiter of Destiny, which does have ZERO delay between transformation now , I'd say G.Summoning is our best offensive SC. Baleful Transmogrification is horrible even reduced to 50% and it's more on the level of Elec's Megavolt vs Bunker Buster or Strafing Run.

I did test Arbiter of Destiny in an AoE environment(First room of Nexus walk in with a Tank friend) and the damage is great due to the huge crit buffs but you lose a ton of weapon damage. Even spamming Shard, Soul Siphon, Transmutation, Soul Barrage it still pales in comparison to the damage you could've done with weapon combos included. If the transformation allowed for weapon attacks like Mass Hysteria, it'd be better but then again it'd also be severely over powered .

As far as healing, realistically and due to the amount of adds, you can heal the entire T6 alert with just Bad Karma + Transmutation. Soul Siphon/Shard + Transmutation can put everyone at full life instantly. It's moreso like a long range slightly weaker version of Electrify PI + Electroburst except it doesn't remove the PI and it can be spammed with a Red Soul Aura up.

Sorcery isn't as suited toward battle healing like Nature and Celestial because our powers don't hit as hard even if you specced to might, which I don't recommend. However, Transmutation healing + WM combos can still net you a large amount of damage with ease. If you have a lot of SP i'd spec into the DPS innates after Crit Heal Chance/Magnitude and mod all the Yellows with Resto/Precision. If you don't have a lot of SP, I'd spec into DPS innates after Crit Heal Chance/Magnitude and mod with pure Resto. This is only to be considered if you're considering battle healing.

You're right about the aggro...I had this happen a couple of times.

I swear I've done testing where I saw it consume it at some point. Maybe it was a bug or idk what, but that changes things. I can definitely add transmutation or vengeance back in that loadout.

It's very possible that it may have been a ninja fix. I haven't been on in a while but as far as I recall, nothing consumes the Bad Karma PI however, Boon of Souls is now the only power that consumes the Red Soul Aura. Wrath has been removed and Soul Storm no longer consumes the RSA. I could log on to test it in a bit unless you are able to.

Will you continue using Arrow Fling after the massive nerf it received with the server update today? I've read others saying it lost 70-80% of its damage output as it was previously scaling as a 'melee' weapon instead of the intended 'range' weapon, which it will be scaled as after this update.

It depends on the timings with other combos, I may try the ones that Whizzkid has listed on the first page of this thread, 1H - HB (Solar Flame) or HB to Bow (Explosive Shot). There are other weapon combos that do far more damage but take longer, I want something that does decent damage and is quick enough that I can enjoy a rotation of my powers.

After this hit to AF, I've simply removed the SP from it and will stick with just HB>Bow Explosive Shot since it does a lot of damage and offers AoE now.

Anyone else notice Transmutation hitting lower than before? With the Bad Karma and the WM bonus, Transmutation use to crit for around 3k - 3.5k with 3500 Might. Now it barely does over 2k.
SMH. Not only did they take away the stun from Shard but it appears they also nerfed the damage of Transmutation.

What's a good dps and healer load out for pvp??

I also enjoy the hb-> explosive shot. My only problem with it is that it is just slow enough to lose the hit counter.

I actually kept HB>Arrow Fling, it can still be beneficial if NPC's are close together- just doesn't do massive damage anymore. But yes, HB>Explosive Shot is MUCH slower than DW>Explosive Shot. With DW, I could swap back and forth between DW Slash>Flurry Shot and DW Double Throw>Explosive Shot and maintain the hit counter the entire time- it made the Relentless Precision mod useful because I was always able to reach between 12-20 on the hit counter against bosses. With HB>Bow, that isn't the case as the counter always resets. Strange that having two weapons in your hand and quickly grabbing and using a bow is much faster than having bare hands and grabbing and using a bow.

UPDATE:

I ran a non-scientific comparison today, first running several Gotham Under Siege missions with HB>Bow and then switched to an armory with same SP build with DW>Bow. I was fully expecting the content to take longer or be a bit more difficult with DW, but what I discovered was quite the opposite; I actually found myself finishing the missions a bit faster with DW, or at least it seemed that way.

People say that HB>Bow does more damage, which is true, but ONLY if you compare a single combo rotation. However, considering I can pretty much get TWO DW>Bow rotations done in the same amount of time as one HB>Bow... you really need to add the damage from those two rotations compared to the single of HB. Further, DW>Bow offers even more benefits in that it is able to reach 9+ on the hit counter, which takes advantage of the Precision bonus from the Relentless Precision mod, but also the fact that the entire time you're maintaining your hit counter, you are also maintaining your damage modifier. So if I pop a 50% damage modifier prior to my WM combos, I am getting that 50% damage bonus the entire time I'm maintaining the combos- the modifier only resets when the hit counter does.

As far as crit damage between DW>Bow Explosive Shot and HB>Bow Explosive Shot... I saw at most a 3K difference in crits and even that was rare. But considering I can get off TWO DW>Explosive Shots before HB can get off one... IMO that negates any crit advantage HB and its three button combos may have. Again, just my opinion. Perhaps scientific data may indicate otherwise, but what I've seen in actual game play, it is true.

sad to say, recently I have been heal tanking TD and rarely have time to throw a full combo between heals, kiting, etc.

Arrow fling hits for 50% less since the change (for me anyway)

Question on one of your melee loadouts you have vengeance in there but vengeance grants gold soul aura does that have any negative effect on red soul aura even though you get bad karma from vengeance?

Use "Guardian Pet" it taunts your enemies in case your health is below 50%, so your Guardian will act as a Tank.. This could work in a group formation (2 DPS - 1 Heal - 1 Troll)..

At the end, the group itself won't receive major damage as well your Guardia do his tank role and you keep healing him..

Well, Vengeance doesn't grant Bad Karma. It does do more damage while Bad Karma is active, if that's what you meant. As far as the Soul Auras, you cannot have both of them active at the same time so one will overwrite the other. If you are using powers that do additional damage with Bad Karma, which will always be active, it doesn't matter if they overwrite. The only powers that really benefit from a Red Soul Aura anymore are Transmutation, Soul Storm, Fury and Boon of Souls. All of those powers, excluding Boon of Souls, can function just fine from Bad Karma as well so using Vengeance won't harm you .

Well, I just got on to look into this for you and the damage was normal to me. With the current skill point allocation and WM combo I had set up, Transmutation would hit for around 2.5-2.7k regularly with the Crit Buff. Mind you, this character is still 103cr so I'm sure it can hit higher. Fury and my own Transmutation were both hitting for the same 2.5-2.8k damage.

Also, to anyone still searching for a solid WM combo to use, I'd personally suggest giving the Bow a try. It's been my preferred weapon of choice even with all the previous 1H/DW and HB/Bow popularity.

• The Bow's ranged WM combo got an upgrade due to Explosive Shot now becoming an AoE this making Explosive Shot > Full Auto a beautiful pure AoE combo.
• Also, Combo'ing into the Smoke Bomb for Melee is a fast and efficient AoE option as well.

If you run a Balanced build or even one leaning slightly toward Precision, you can get some great damage with the Bow's WM combos.

Edit:I also updated the "Popular WM combos" portion to include 5 ranged AND 5 melee combos that are popular among the player base to give more options as well.

I use bow as well... For single target range I use the range- tap, tap, tap, hold, hold... Does nice damage and the last hold crits for like 3k with 2 hits...